⑨ Moments of Anime #5: true tears ep 06

by eternal on December 22, 2008

True Tears was an excellent series, blurring the line between visual novel and shoujo – much like KimiKiss – and delivering a heart-pounding love story with elements familiar to both genres. Defying all laws of harem (and apparently defying the original game’s story, as well), it proved to be one of my favourite shows of the year, no doubt due to the amount of drama built up throughout the series. Just as realism is something I often enjoy in romance (see Clannad After Story), unrealistic melodramatic stories can also be good, so long as the characters are understandable and their actions aren’t too ridiculous. To me, True Tears stood out not only because of its genre-defying developments, but also because of its plot twists, and the sixth episode is one that left me with my jaw dropped.

The love – what was it, pentagon? – of True Tears was something that I enjoyed immensely. As impractical as it may have been, the setup was nothing short of brilliant, and the execution was adequate at the very least; I found my enjoyment increasing dramatically with every passing week. Around half way through the series, however, things really picked up, and I believe a large portion of that was due to the realization (false or not) that Shinichirou and Hiromi were related.

Of course, there’s much that one can say about True Tears, this plot twist being only one of the many surprises and dramatic scenes that took place throughout the series. However, with the pentagon growing ever more vivid – and ever more painful – this specific twist was just what I needed to make me realize just how good the show that I was watching was. Through the show’s air time, it transformed in my eyes from mediocre VN adaptation to romance/drama brilliance on the same level as KimiNozo, and right in the middle of it was this little cruel twist that left me in a daze.

It also reminded me of that route in a certain VN involving Blick Winkel-san, but I’d rather not remember that one…

~ ETERNAL
つづく

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

maglor December 22, 2008 at 2:51 am

Yes, The last scenes in this episode was one of most poignant moments I have ever seen in anime

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Owen S December 22, 2008 at 4:54 am

What? true tears the anime had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with true tears the VN, so I don’t know what you’re talking about when you say “mediocre VN adaptation”–they just borrowed the name for the anime. It’s entirely original. Might want to check your facts there.

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IcyStorm December 22, 2008 at 5:01 am

Yeah, Owen’s right for once.

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Owen S December 22, 2008 at 5:17 am

Don’t mind IcyStorm, he’s that stray dog that follows me around from blog to blog begging for scraps of attention. Unfortunately, I’ve always been a cat person and think dogs are retarded.

Owen Ss last blog post..Fate/stay night, Heaven’s Feel Route

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omo December 22, 2008 at 11:15 am

Owen, grinding your axe here is less productive even when the errata is somewhat helpful. The distinction is meaningless anyways for this show.

I didn’t think True Tears was particularly groundbreaking in the exploration of romantic relationships.

Shows like the Da Capo series actually do a good job with that, if much less artisan and generally of lower quality in construction.

omos last blog post..Year in Review: I Can Fly

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Martin December 22, 2008 at 2:23 pm

Um, yeah, apart from the trivial detail about the series’ origins (a lot of people made the same mistake, believe me) this is a great post. I guess it’s just a good story, well told, pure and simple. I loved the nuances to the characters’ expressions and the pitch-perfect dialogue worked wonderfully. It was a nice change I suppose to watch something that featured ordinary people doing ordinary things, but made it feel fresh and special. The tangle of relationships was also handled better than any show I’ve seen in a fair while.

I’d also like to add that cats are cooler than dogs…they are like small, furry humans, except even more cute and devious. Definitely THE superior species.

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ETERNAL December 22, 2008 at 8:59 pm

Sorry, that was a bit of bad wording on my part: I did acknowledge that the original game was (evidently) different, as you can see in the first paragraph, but when I first watched the show I hadn’t yet gotten into the habit of frequenting the blogosphere. In other words, I didn’t know at the time just how different the anime was, so in my eyes the show started out on the same level as H2O – but, of course, ended completely differently.

@ omo: DC, really? I never looked at it that way before, but there might very well have been more than met the eye. I know I at least enjoyed Yume’s confession in the most recent season, as I mentioned in the first of my 12 Days posts.

@ Martin: I agree, the setup was so complicated that it would have been very easy for it all to simply fall apart. It didn’t, though, thankfully.

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usagijen December 25, 2008 at 8:40 am

True Tears was awesome, and if I remember correctly, episode 6 was _the_ episode that compelled me to join its merry shipping/blogging bandwagon way back when it aired.

Though, the sibling-ness of Shinichirou and Hiromi plot twist, or the issue with Nakagami-kaasan turned out rather… half-baked, because it wasn’t fully explored. It seemed like a cheap trick to get people hanging at the edge of their seat, wondering whether or not they are siblings, or what exactly happened between Nakagami-tousan and Hiromi’s mom. Or it’s just expectations that I felt was a little betrayed. Other than that, well, it was a great series overall :)

usagijens last blog post..Stabbing Bloggers Behind Their Backs, the Google Notes Way

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